Enermax Staray Case Review

Introduction

Staray is available in two versions: with one Apollish fan with blue LEDs (ECA-3170-BL) or with three Apollish fans with red LEDs (ECA-3171-BR-AP), which is the model we reviewed. Of course the model with three fans is more expensive than the model with just one fan. Let’s see if this case is a good pick.

Figure 1: Enermax Staray (ECA-3171-BR-AP) case.

Figure 2: Enermax Staray (ECA-3171-BR-AP) case.

The front panel of Staray is completely meshed with dust filters. As you can see in Figure 3, this case has four external 5.25” bays and one external 3.5” bay. Both versions from this case have a front 120 mm Apollish fan. Apollish fans feature a magnetic bearing, a series of 15 LEDs connected to an on/off switch and spins at 1,200 rpm, plus a cool metallic looks. The retail version of this fan has a thermal sensor to control the fan speed (between 700 rpm and 1,700 rpm), so the Apollish fans used on Staray aren’t identical to the retail version. The fans used on Staray have only two wires, being connected to a standard peripheral power plug, so you can’t monitor their speed using a fan monitoring program. On the front fan the on/off switch from the LEDs is routed to the front panel, however the side fans don’t have the same privilege, as we will talk about later.

Gabriel Torres is a Brazilian best-selling ICT expert, with 24 books published. He started his online career in 1996, when he launched Clube do Hardware, which is one of the oldest and largest websites about technology in Brazil. He created Hardware Secrets in 1999 to expand his knowledge outside his home country.